Cut-Outs From “Shop Of Love” Adorn Patna As Opposition Parties Gather For A Historic Meeting

The city of Bihar, Patna, was decorated with sizable cutouts resembling stalls and dubbed “mohabbat ki dukan” (store of love), a phrase taken from a speech by Congressman Rahul Gandhi. Posters from BJP supporters that poked fun at the Gandhi family by calling Friday’s opposition meeting “parivar bachao” (rescue the family) could also be seen all across the mediaeval city of Patna.

The shop-shaped cutouts sold jars of “nafrat chodo, Bharat jodo” (abandon enmity, unite India). at an apparent allusion to purported assaults on the opposition and certain groups of society, Gandhi had previously said at Alwar that he was building a store of love in the “bazaar of hatred.” Along with others, vibrant posters and banners of Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwat Mann, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, and others were displayed across the city.

Prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the first nationwide united conference of opposition parties was conducted on Friday in Patna. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) leder Uddhav Thackeray, NCP president Sharad Pawar, former Jammu and Kashmir CMs Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and several opposition leaders attended the meeting.